RAINBOW FARMS    AUSTRALIA                                            

                                                                                                                                                                              700 - 600 BC 

                                                                                                                                                        *53,Macha Mongruadh - *59.Ugaine Mor 

700 - 500 BC The Celts would emerge as one of the most important people in Europe.

668 - 661 BC. *53.Macha Mongruadh - of the Red Tresses became the 64th Monarch of Tara / Erinn and ruled with *60.Cimbaoth jointly who had been the ruler of Emania for the previous 18 years, who then died.  From the time of Partholon down to *60.Cimbaoth it had been 1202 years. From *60.Cimbaoth to Fergus Fogha was to be 400 years. From *60.Cimbaoth to Connor mac Nessa 450 years. *60.Cimbaoth to the destruction of Emain Macha by the Heremonian Dal Cuinn 3 Colla brothers 920 years.

661 - 654 BC. *61.Macha Mongruadh - of the Red Tresses as the Queen of Ireland ruled alone as the Celtic Irian 64th Monarch of Erinn for 14 years, who was the daughter of *60.Aodh Ruadh - of Red Complexion the previous Irian 61st King of Tara / Erinn, and she was to be the only woman ever to be a Queen of Ireland in her own right, and both Emain Macha and Armagh in the south - east of the Ulster Province are named for her.            

 654 - 634 BC. *65.Reacht / Reachtaidh Righ Dearg - the Red King  became the Celtic Heberian 65th King of Tara / Erinn who was a son of *64.Lewy / Lughaidh Lagha the previous 60th King of Tara / Erinn, and he had been involved in the killing of *60.Macha Mongruadh - of the Red Tresses the previous Irian 64th Monarch of Erinn. He also subdued the Celtic Cruthin Gaelic Picts in Alba / Scottish Highlands with a powerful force of his aristocratic warriors to increase his personal authority there, as the Picts were growing wayward in the payment of their yearly tribute to the Gaelic Milesian Kings of Ireland. He was to rule for 20 years until he too was killed in battle by *59.Ugaine Mor / *59.Hugoney the Great.

634 - 594 BC. *59.Ugaine  Mor / Hugoney - the Great became the Celtic Heremonian 66th King of Tara / Erinn, who was a son of 58.Eochy / Eochaidh Buadach, the son of *57.Duach Ladhrach the previous 59th King of Tara / Ireland. Many of the important aristocratic Gaelic Milesian Heremonian warrior Septs in the Connacht Province, the Leinster Province, the Munster Province, the Highlands of Scotland and the Ulster Province were to trace their direct male line descent from him personally. He was a contemporary of Alexander the Great and was to rule Ireland for 40 years, during which time he was to sail with a fleet into the Mediterranean and landed forces in Africa, and also laid siege to Sicily, and also went into Gaul. He married Ceasair the daughter of the King of the Gauls who were his Celtic kinsmen, and they had 22 sons and 3 daughters, and he was to divide the Kingdom of Erinn into 25 parts for them to inherit, which was to last for 300 years. Only 2 of his sons were to leave any aristocratic warrior issue and of these;

   *60.Leary / Laoghaire Lorc would be the 68th King of Tara / Erinn and the direct male line ancestor of 2 main Heremonian Septs in the Leinster Province the Ui Laoghaire Ui Lughaidh Cu Corb Septs who were to mostly the Kings of Leinster, and the Ui Laoghaire Ui Connla Septs who would be mostly the Kings of Ossory, but despite this both would produce Kings of Leinster and Ossory, and their Heremonian Ui Laoghaire Septs / Family branches there especially in Southern Leinster.  

   *60.Coffey / Cobthach Caol Bhreagh - the Slender of Brega was to become the 69th King of Tara / Erinn and the direct male line ancestor of the main aristocratic Heremonian Ui Cobhthaigh Septs in the Leinster Province, the Ui Felim Dal Cuinn 3 Colla Septs in the kingdom of Orghialla / Airghialla anglicized as Oriel in Southern Ulster, the Ui Felim Dal Cuinn 3 Connachta Septs and the Ui Felim Dal Cuinn Ui Maine in the Connacht Province, the Ui Felim Dal Cuinn southern Ui Niaill in Midhe / Northern Leinster and the Ui Felim Dal Cuinn northern Ui Niaill in the Ulster Province, the Ui Cobhthaigh Ui Conaire Muscraige and Earna Septs in the Munster Province, and their kinsmen the Ui Conaire Dal Riada / Scottii of Co. Antrim in Ulster and Argyle (The Land of the Gael), Albany / Scottish Highlands.

Wine was imported into Celtic Gaul, while beer was for home production, and Pork was a favourite dish, with etiquette of precedence and hospitality was observed, with strangers being fed before any inquiries were made, and the Celts were also obsessed with magic and ritual, for as rural dwellers magic pervaded every aspect of their lives, and they were concerned to constrain the powers of magic to their personal benefit. Ritual, sacrifice and sacred stories were used to impress the deities by precedent and remembrance, but there was no real conformity as in most major religions or organised structures such as the Greeks and the Romans had. They sprung from a common Indo - European tradition, which they shared with the Aryan ancestors of the Hindus and the Italic forerunners of the Romans, and originally they had 2 principal seasons, Warm and Cold, which eventually evolved into the following 4 Festivals.

Samhain: Fertility / Reassembly was on November 1st : Which was a gathering together, as each Tuath / Family region went to the Oenach / Assembly at the end of the year, and the beginning of the next, a turning point of the agricultural cycle and the end of the grazing cycle when only the breeders were kept from slaughter, providing unlimited feasting, seen as the beginning of good fortune for the coming Spring and Summer. The union of the Daghda / The Good Father / the Protector and Benefactor with a divinity such as Morrigan the Queen of the Demons, or Boann who was the deity of the River Boyne, with Morrigan also known as Nemain Panic and Badb Catha - the Raven of the Battle. Macha and Medb / Maeve were female names of divinities also with mare attributes and symbolism, such as Epona who was a Celtic deity. No deities of War just the Wisdom of the Sun, as they were only concerned with their local deities both male and female. In Gaul they had Cernunnos - the Horned One, and Tarvos - the Three - Horned Bull. The night of the eve before Samhain was overrun by magic forces when magical warriors came from out of the caves and mounds, and mortal men might be received into these realms, and assaults occurred on the aristocratic strongholds with flame and poisonings attempted by the demons. The Daghda / Father represented immense strength and appetite, clad in a short garment of a servant, his weapon was a great club, which was dragged on a wheel, and he also had a great magical cauldron, which was a symbol of abundance in Ireland from which no one went away without being satisfied.  

 

Imbolc - February 1st: Lactation of the ewes, beginning on the Feast of St. Brigid whose predecessor, Brigid was a wise woman, who was a daughter of the Daghda Mor, a fertility divinity with attributes of learning and healing. Sheep had no ritual status, as did the Ox, Boar and the Dog components in divine and mortal names, although the qualities of their wool was very important to the Celts.

Beltaine (Cetshamain) - May 1st: Beginning of the Warm Season, which was a pastoral festival where the cattle were taken to open grazing with the lighting of great fires and then driven in between by the Druids to protect them from disease, as the word Beltaine includes the Celtic word for fire, which was also a deity name in Northern Italy, south - east Gaul and in Noricum who was known there as Belenus who is one of the oldest Celtic gods known especially among the pastoralists.

Lugnasad - August 1st: was to be introduced by the late coming settler group into Ireland and is connected with the Tuatha De Danann and Lew / Lugh who became their King, and it was agrarian in character for the ripening of the crops to ensure the coming harvest, and was not a thankful gesture, with the ritual if carried out correctly culminating in the desired result. Lugh, who was a latecomer in Ireland was also a respected Tuatha De Danann deity who was less archaic in character then the others, with different weapons. His epithet was Samildanach - the Lord of Every Skill, rather then knowledge in general, and it was he who had personally founded the festival for Tailtu or as Macha in the Ulster Province. This Festival was also known as Bron Trograin / The Rage of Trograin where sacrifices were made to increase plenty, and he may have also been a previous tribal divinity who was to be overshadowed by the later outstanding deeds of Lugh. Always visualised as a young man, Lugh had none of the characteristics of the Daghda Mor, although there is no vivid description of his appearance as there is of the Daghda Mor - the Great Father. Lugh was also known as Lugh Lamfhada - of the Long Arm as he also had far reaching weapons, a great throwing spear and a sling, that were new impressive additions to the previous weapons in Ireland at that time.

These 4 Festivals were all based on Lunar observations, and on the nights, not the days. Misfortunes such as failure of the crops, cattle disease, and other calamities could be attributed to supernatural non - acceptability of the King from a physical or ritual blemish who was a mortal mate of the territorial nature divinity. At Tara it was Etain or Medb who accepted the Kings as their husbands as these divinities handed them the goblet, which was a symbol of marriage in Celtic society, or the Kings would meet her at a well or spring were she waited as a beautiful maiden. The divinities could also turn from being beautiful maidens into old hags, and they could also be very destructive, usually predicting some calamity, or they could just appear out of nowhere on a field of battle. An example of this in later Irish myth, was to occur to Cu Chualann the great epic warrior of the Ulster Province who was to be confronted by Badb in a red cloak with red eyebrows, who was also mounted in a chariot drawn by a grotesque horse, and accompanied by a crude male figure driving a cow and reciting horse names. Badb was to then change into her bird form of a raven or crow and gloat over the bloodshed, inducing panic and weakness among the contending warriors.

    At this time the Celts who were technically superior were trading with the Greeks and Etruscans, and the La Tene Celtic style of art developed from this exchange of ideas. Due to their belief in the Otherworld and that their Souls were immortal the Celts were a warrior Culture and were great fighters and became in great demand as mercenaries. From their homeland in Central Europe they were to spread westward into France and the Brython Isles, south - west into Iberia, south into Northern Italy and eastwards into the Balkans and Asia Minor. the Averni into France, the Belgae into Gaul, and Southern Briton, the Boii into Italy, the Helvetii into Switzerland and the Scordisci into Serbia,

                                         

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